Target apparatus including a plurality of mesh layers and sensors on each layer

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a ball and net game device having several levels of net board whose mesh is just large enough to let a ball pass through, a projector free to change its projection angle to project said ball on an uppermost net board and a detector microswitch to detect said ball dropping in a specified mesh, said detector in electric connection to operate a prize ball discharger and a slide-film projector.

I United States Patent 1 1 3,764,143 Takahashi Oct. 9 1973 [54] TARGET APPARATUS INCLUDING A 3,231,277 1/1966 Holland 273/101 PLURALITY MESH LAYERS AND 2,746,757 5/1956 Frost 273/95 R 2,211,882 8 1940 273/95 R SENSORS ON EACH LAYER 3,206,196 9/1965 273/102L2 R [76] Inventor: Eiichi Takahashi, ll-go S-ban, 3,157,399 11/1964 Gaudet 273/l02.2 R

S-chome, Honcho, Toda-shi,

Saitama, Japan Primary Examiner--Richard C. Pinkham [22] Flled' 1971 Assistant Examiner-Marvin Siskind [21] Appl. No.: 178,292 Attorney-Harold D. Steinberg et a1.

[] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 8, 1970 Japan /78158 ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl 273/122 A, 273/101, 273/125 A 273/102.l G, 273/102.2 R The present invention provides a ball and net game [51] Int. Cl A63b 71/02 device h ng veral level of n board whose mesh [58] Field of Search 273/ R, 101, 102.2 R, is just large enough to let a ball pass through, a projec- 2713/1024, R, 1023, 102,1 R, 118 R, tor free to change its projection angle to project said 118 A, 119 R, 119A, 122 R, 122 A, 123 R, ball on an uppermost net board and a detector micros- 123 A, 125 R, 125 A witch to detect said ball dropping in a specified mesh, said detector in electric connection to operate a prize [56] References Cited ball discharger and a slide-film projector.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,667,754 6/1972 Coole m 272/8 P 7 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEUUBI 9:975

sum 10k 2 HI TANAl/ASH/ TARGET APPARATUS INCLUDING A PLURALITY F MESH LAYERS AND SENSORS ON EACH LAYER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention mainly belongs to Class 273 Subclasses 95, 96, 102.2, 102.3, 102.4. 103, 105.1, 105.5, 130 and 138 so that the present invention belongs to aerial projectile combined projector and catcher, targets electrical and prize dispensing, pocketed projected picture and ball, with game boards and chance device comprising a ball and net game device having horizontally severallevel of net board whose mesh is just large enough to let. a ball pass through, a ball projecting mechanism mounted on an uppermost net board free to change its projection angle, adetecting mechanism or microswitch mounted at a prescribed mesh of each level of said net board, a prize ball discharging mechanism and a slide-film projecting mechanism, said detecting mechanismelectrically connected with said prize ball discharging mechanism and a slide -film' projecting mechanism, said detecting mechanism acted to operate said prize ball discharging mechanism and said slide-film projecting mechanism only when said ball drops through said prescribed mesh.

2. Description of the Prior Art The former ball game devices like pinball machines etc. have allowed only two dimensional movement of the ball as the ball moves on a plain surface, whereas the ball and net game device of the present invention achieves three dimensional movement of the ball as the ball is projected to, bounded on and dropped through the net board so that any player can enjoy such three dimensional playing factors as aiming at, projecting to and expecting to bound or drop in a specified mesh of prize hole with passing down through the net board by the ball.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF INVENTION ball and net game device has horizontally several levels of net board whose mesh is just large enough to let the ball pass down through, an uppermost net board having a projecting mechanism free to change .its projection angle, each level of said net board having such a detecting mechanism as a microswitch 'at a prescribed position, said detecting mechanism acted only by the ball dropped in a mesh of said prescribed position to let a prize ball discharging mechanism open and to let a slide-film projecting mechanism project a slide film.

The operation of the presentinvention is such that any game-player can enjoy to aim the ball projectile at a specified prize mesh and toexpect a chance of the slide-films projected on a screen as well as to gain some prize balls each time the ball drops in said specified mesh and that the player can sit in a chair to play a game without any mental and physical fatigue.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective top view of a ball and net game device;

FIG. 2 is a side view when removing a side plate adjacent to several levels of net board thereof;

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a ball guiding mechanism thereof;

FIG. 4 is a rear cross-section thereof;

FIG. 5 is a vertical section of a ball projecting mechanism thereof; I

FIG. 6 is a top plan view showing a ball to drop through a specified mesh of net board thereof;

FIG. 7 is a cross-section ofFlG. 6; and I FIG. 8 is a side elevation illustrating a state of slidefilm projection thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A ball and net game device comprises a main body 1 which has horizontally several levels of net boards 2 2a 2b 2c 2d etc.

A screen part 3 is mounted vertically at the rear an upper part of the main body 1.

A slide-film projector M can throw a picture on the screen part 3, as shown in FIG. 8.

A ball projecting mechanism 4 is mounted on the top plane of the main body 1.

against the ball projecting mechanism 4.

A ball 7 can be projected by the ball projecting mechanism 4 to the uppermost net board 2, as shown in H6. 5.

A mesh 8 of the net boards 2 2a 2b 2c 2d etc. is as large'as just enough to let the ball 7 pass through.

A guide conduit9jsmounted at the lowest position of the main body 1 to receive the ball 7 dropping.

A conveyor 10 will feeds the ball 7 from the guide conduit 9 to a prize ball tank 11.

Microswitches 12 12 are set under some mesh places of the net board 2 and under one mesh place of each level of the net boards 2a 2b 2c 2d etc.

When a pushing plate 13 of the microswitch 12 is pushed by the ball 7 dropped in the mesh 8 of the prescribed mesh place (FIG. 6), an electromagnet 14 will be operated through a relay 14a and a prize ball discharging mechanism 15 will be opened to discharge a prescribed number of balls lying in the prize ball tank 11 down to a hopper 16.

The ball 7 is fed on from the hopper 16 to a conveyer 17, from which the ball 7 is further fed out to a ball receiving conduit 18 adjacent to the ball projecting mechanism 4. I

A motor 19 drives the conveyer 10.

Another motor 20 will drives the conveyer 17.

I A microswitch 12 will'be acted to operate the slidefilm projector M and many kinds of slide-films will be projected on the screen 3 at a short time as they are exchanged in order. 1 i

The ball 7 which passed down through the net board 2 will drop and bound at random from the upper net board to the lower net board.

After dropping passage through the levels of net boards 20 2b 2c 2d etc. the ball 7 will be received by the guide conduit 9.

If the ball 7 pushes the pushing plate 13 of the microswitch 12 during said dropping passage, the microswitch 12 is acted to feed out the prescribed number of the balls in the prize ball tank 11 at each time of pushing and also to project orderly exchanging slide-films on the screen part 3.

The ball projecting mechanism 4 is composed of a projecting tube 22 which is inserted by a projecting rod 21 and a fan-shaped guide rail 24 which guides a leg part 23 having the projecting tube 22 en bloc.

The projecting tube 22 can be moved along the fanshaped guide rail 24 at a selected projecting angle to the net board 2 and can be freely adjusted.

A spring 25 will act at the projecting rod 21.

A knob 26 is fixed at the projecting rod 21.

Ball receiving parts27 27 stand on said mesh place of prize hole of the net board 2 to catch the ball 7 projected.

To explain a game played by the ball and net game device of the present invention, when the balls 7 7 are at first set in the ball receiving conduit 18, they will be fed to the projecting place before the projecting mechanism 4 one by one.

Then the player moves the projecting mechanism 4 to aim at the ball receiving part 27 of prize hole and projects the ball 7.

When the ball 7 drops in the prize hole directly or during passing and bounding down through the net boards, the prize ball discharging mechanism 15 and the slide-film projector M will be operated as mentioned above.

When the balls 7 7 drop in the prize hole continuously, switching operation of the microswitch 12 will result one by one through a known electrical circuit.

What I claim is 1. In a ball and net game device, a plurality of net boards respectively situated at given levels one above the other and including at least one uppermost net board and at least one net boardsituated beneath and being parallel to said uppermost net board, said net boards each having meshes of a predetermined crosssectional area, a ball to be projected onto said uppermost net board to fall through a mesh of the latter and then through a mesh of the next lower net board, said ball having a diameter which renders each mesh of each net board just large enough to permit the ball to fall through any mesh of the net boards, each net board carrying at the region of at least one mesh thereof a microswitch situated in the path of movement of the ball when the latter falls through said one mesh of each net board so that the microswitch will then be actuated by the ball, and means responding to actuation of a microswitch for providing a predetermined response to the falling of the ball through that one mesh of a given net board where the microswitch is located.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a screen is situated at the region of said uppermost net board in a position to be viewed by a player of the game, and a projector for projecting slides onto the screen to be viewed by the player, said projector forming the means which responds to actuation of a microswitch by said ball.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a projector is situated at an edge region of said uppermost net board for projecting said ball onto said uppermost net board, guide means coaeting with said projector for guiding balls thereto, a reservoir of prize balls, and conveyer means cooperating with said reservoir for conveying prize balls from the latter to said guide means to be delivered to said projector, said conveyer means forming said means which responds to actuation of a microswitch by falling of a ball through said one mesh of a given net board.

4. The combination of claim 3 and wherein a screen is situated at the region of said uppermost net board in a position to be viewed by a player, and a slide projector for projecting slides onto said screen, said slide projector forming also part of means which responds to actuation of a microswitch by said ball for changing the slides to change a scene which is projected onto said screen.

5. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a series of net boards are respectively situated at predetermined elevations one above the other terminating at the uppermost level in said uppermost net board, said uppermost net board carrying a plurality of said microswitches at a plurality of predetermined meshes thereof while each of the successive lower net boards carries only one microswitch at a given mesh thereof.

6. The combination of claim 1 and wherein at least at said uppermost net board there is a U-shaped ballreceiving element aligned with said one mesh where said microswitch is located for receiving a ball which approaches said one mesh and aiding in the guiding of said ball through said one mesh. e

7. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a ballprojector means capable of being swivelled by the operator for aiming a ball is situated at the region of an edge of said uppermost net board for projecting said ball therealong.

'0' i k l l 

1. In a ball and net game device, a plurality of net boards respectively situated at given levels one above the other and including at least one uppermost net board and at least one net board situated beneath and being parallel to said uppermost net board, said net boards each having meshes of a predetermined cross-sectional area, a ball to be projected onto said uppermost net board to fall through a mesh of the latter and then through a mesh of the next lower net board, said ball having a diameter which renders each mesh of each net board just large enough to permit the ball to fall through any mesh of the net boards, each net board carrying at the region of at least one mesh thereof a microswitch situated in the path of movement of the ball when the latter falls through said one mesh of each net board so that the microswitch will then be actuated by the ball, and means responding to actuation of a microswitch for providing a predetermined response to the falling of the ball through that one mesh of a given net board where the microswitch is located.
 2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a screen is situated at the region of said uppermost net board in a position to be viewed by a player of the game, and a projector for projecting slides onto the screen to be viewed by the player, said projector forming the means which responds to actuation of a microswitch by said ball.
 3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a projector is situated at an edge region of said uppermost net board for projecting said ball onto said uppermost net board, guide means coacting with said projector for guiding balls thereto, a reservoir of prize balls, and conveyer means cooperating with said reservoir for conveying prize balls from the latter to said guide means to be delivered to said projector, said conveyer means forming said means which responds to actuation of a microswitch by falling of a ball through said one mesh of a given net board.
 4. The combination of claim 3 and wherein a screen is situated at the region of said uppermost net board in a position to be viewed by a player, and a slide projector for projecting slides onto said screen, said slide projector forming also part of means which responds to actuation of a microswitch by said ball for changing the slides to change a scene which is projected onto said screen.
 5. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a series of net boards are respectively situated at predetermined elevations one above the other terminating at the uppermost level in said uppermost net board, said uppermost net board carrying a plurality of said microswitches at a plurality of predetermined meshes thereof while each of the successive lower net boards carries only one microswitch at a given mesh thereof.
 6. The combination of claim 1 and wherein at least at said uppermost net board there is a U-shaped ball-receiving element aliGned with said one mesh where said microswitch is located for receiving a ball which approaches said one mesh and aiding in the guiding of said ball through said one mesh.
 7. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a ball-projector means capable of being swivelled by the operator for aiming a ball is situated at the region of an edge of said uppermost net board for projecting said ball therealong. 